Slow down: Plans for new 40km/h speed zones across inner-city suburbs

Melbourne City Council is set to expand 40km/h speed zones across inner-city suburbs including a 60km/h stretch of Lygon Street.

But the council has backed away from a proposal to lower speed limits to 30km/h in the Hoddle Grid in its final Transport Strategy to 2030.

New 40km/h speed zones will likely be rolled out in East Melbourne, Carlton, South Melbourne and West Melbourne, in a bid to ease worsening traffic conditions and improve pedestrian safety.

This includes Lygon Street between Elgin and Princes streets, in addition to Canning, Cardigan and Drummond streets in Carlton. Courtney Street in North Melbourne and Adderley Street in West Melbourne will also have a 40km/h speed limit.

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Speed limits would not be reduced on state-owned roads and highways and any changes would require government approval.

The strategy was released following a six-week public consultation and is expected to be endorsed by councillors at next week's council meeting.

The council's transport portfolio chair Nicolas Frances Gilley said members of the public complained that inconsistent speed limits caused confusion. This is why council was planning to expand 40km/h speed zones, he said.

"Consistency is what we've heard is the most important thing and I completely agree," he said.

"If you’re driving in from the east you have 40km/h on the local streets in the City of Yarra, then 50km/h in East Melbourne before reaching the central city where it's 40km/h again.

"We also need to recognise that there may still be areas in the city that because of their particular use, we may want to experiment with 30km/h or lower."

Lord mayor Sally Capp said the council was trying to slow down traffic, widen footpaths and reprogram traffic lights to prioritise pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users. She said changes were necessary to accommodate an extra 500,000 people expected to be the inner city each day by 2036.

"We know we need to make changes and upgrade our infrastructure to cope with our booming population," Cr Capp said.

"The strategy to be considered by councillors, aims to upgrade public space and amenity around major public transport hubs, increase space and accessibility for pedestrians and boost bicycle safety with dedicated bike lanes."

The council's 10-year vision for the city would deliver an $870 million boost to Victoria's economy, according to a Deloitte Access Economics report commissioned by the city council.

Under the strategy, council will trial lowering the speed limit to 30km/h or less on Melbourne's "Little" streets (Little Collins, Little Bourke, Little Lonsdale, Little La Trobe) and closing those streets to cars at different times of the day to give pedestrians priority.

Footpath overcrowding has been identified as a significant problem, with the council warning that 89 per cent of all trips made in the Hoddle Grid are on foot, but just 26 per cent of street space is allocated to footpaths.

Traffic lanes will be narrowed in some areas to give pedestrians more space, while some on-street parking bays would be given over to motorcycles and bicycles.

Infrequent traffic light changes put a "handbrake" on the city’s economy, the strategy says. Pedestrians waiting at Spencer Street traffic lights face an average delays of 34 seconds, while trams spend 17 per cent of trips sitting at a red light.

Signals would be tweaked to give pedestrians and public transport users priority under the council plan.

But an initial council proposal to reduce the speed limit in the CBD to 30km/h has not been supported in the final strategy.

Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan said the Transport Department was continuing to review speed zones, while buses and trams already have priority at traffic lights through the CBD.

Speed limits were dropped to 40km/h in the inner city in 2012. In the five years that followed there was a 37 per cent drop in crashes compared to the five years before.